Christmas Events In Pinellas (2024 Update)
Your guide to Christmas events in Clearwater-St. Pete
Looking for something festive to do this weekend? We’ve rounded up a list of Christmas events happening in Pinellas, all updated for 2024.
We are two local moms and love doing holiday-themed activities with our own kids. I’ve personally been frustrated trying to find a master list of local Pinellas activities since all the lists that pop up are for the huge Tampa Bay region.
Our list focuses specifically on local Christmas events for Pinellas families. We include some select Tampa Bay activities, like ZooTampa’s Christmas event, but only the ones we’d make the trip for ourselves.
This list is regularly updated as we find new events so don’t forget to check back!
Now, let’s find some Christmas cheer!
NOTE: WE HAVE STARTED UPDATING FOR 2024 BUT HAVE NOT YET FINISHED. IF YOU’RE SEEING THIS MESSAGE, UPDATED DATES WILL INCLUDE 2024 IN THE DATE.
Looking for more Christmas fun?
Where to Take Photos with Santa in Pinellas
Can’t Miss Christmas Lights in Pinellas
16 Free Things to Do This Christmas in Pinellas
Are we missing a Christmas event? Shoot us a message and we’ll add it! hello[at]suncoastfamilyfun.com (swap out the [at] with a @)
Multi-Day Christmas Events Near Pinellas
First up, here are the Christmas-themed events near Pinellas that run for multiple days in the holiday season.
Largo Central Park
Largo Central Park is a beautiful light display and also has festive rides, food vendors and on select nights train rides.
ZooTampa Christmas in the Wild
ZooTampa puts on a Christmas extravaganza throughout December. It has Christmas light displays, festive activities, fun treats and more.
Psst… don’t forget to check out our guide to visiting ZooTampa before you go
Rudolph Limited Train at Largo Central Park
The Largo Central Railroad does monthly miniature steam engine rides through Largo Central Park. For Christmas, they do two special evenings where they run the trains through the Christmas lights.
Note: You can’t buy tickets in advance for this; they start selling walk-up tickets around 4:30pm near Shelter 2.
Blizzard Bay at Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is holding a winter-themed event throughout the holiday season this year. While it’s not specifically Christmas, you can do things like explore a polar bear den and do crafts at a “wintery workshop.”
Check out our full guide to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Heritage Village Santa Saturdays
In addition to meeting Santa, there are kid-friendly activities, holiday story times, scavenger hunts, food trucks and music.
Folly Farms Harbor Holiday Nights
Harbor Holiday Nights includes lights, a campfire with s’mores, kids’ activities and live music.
Note that there is no parking at Folly Farms and you have to take a shuttle from Elm & Cedar if you’re driving
Raprager Farm Country Christmas
Raprager’s Old Fashion Christmas has lots to do for families, including Santa (after 3pm), bounce pillow, chute slide, corn pit, petting zoo and lots of Christmas decorations and theming.
We went last year and had a really fun time. It wasn’t crowded at all when we went early in the day but note that Santa doesn’t come until after 3pm.
Check out our full guide to Raprager Farm
Long Center Festival of Trees
The Festival of Trees is a tree and wreath sale to benefit charity (the Arc Tampa Bay Foundation). You can walk through the beautifully decorated trees and meet Santa.
Fire Truck Santa Tours
Fire Rescue Stations throughout Pinellas will host special Santa tours on decorated fire trucks. I remember this so fondly from my own childhood and teen years (hunting down Santa was maybe even funner once we could drive).
St. Pete Libraries Santa Visits
In addition to photos with Santa, every child who comes to meet Santa will also be given a free book. Here’s the St. Pete Library event calendar.
Clearwater Beach 12 Days of Christmas
Clearwater Beach businesses put on a variety of events in December, including a parade and holiday Market
Clearwater Holiday Trolley Tours
Santa tours around Clearwater on a Trolley Tour and you can meet him at a few of Clearwater’s recreation centers. In addition to Santa there are also holiday activities for kids.
**2024 dates have not yet been announced**
Busch Gardens Christmas Town
Christmas Town at Busch Gardens includes Christmas lights, Santa, a holiday train, holiday-themed attractions like meeting Rudolph, and holiday-themed food & shows.
Check out our full post on Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town for what you need to know before you go.
Kids Holiday Scavenger Hunt at Oldsmar Library
Find holiday images hidden throughout the library and win a prize (kids age 12 and under).
Beary Merry Scavenger Hunt at Countryside Mall
Each day, a build-a-bear will be hidden somewhere in the mall. If you find it, you’ll get a free Santa photo package and get to keep the bear.
YuleTides at Florida Aquarium
YuleTides at Florida Aquarium include lots of holiday-themed activities, Santa meetings (select days), Christmas trees, and more.
Winter Wonderland Clearwater
Winter Wonderland Clearwater is a Christmas village that has been put on as a charity drive in our area since 1993. There’s entertainment, Santa, and activities like decorating cookies with Mrs. Claus.
Holiday Lights in the Garden
Florida Botanical Gardens covers itself in Christmas lights for charity every year. This year, they are also doing free kids activities on Sunday and Thursdays in the children’s garden.
St. Pete Holiday Movies in the Park
These also include photo ops with Santa, festive games & activities and concessions before the movies
Christmas at DK Farm
They have decorations, photo ops, petting zoo, activities, bounce house and “Florida snow experience.”
One Day Christmas Events in Pinellas
The next set of events are one-day only events so add them to your calendar now. They’re ordered chronologically to make it easy to find an event by date.
Note: Parades, tree lightings and markets are in separate sections that you’ll find below.
Nov 23: Santa Stroll at Countryside Mall
Countryside Mall turns into a festive event from 6-8pm to welcome Santa for the season. There are treats, characters, and activities; plus, attendees are encourages to dress in Christmas pajamas or sweaters.
Nov 23: Festival of Trees
A tree & wreath auction that also has food, holiday music, vendor market, a ginger bread house competition and photo ops.
Dec 5: Holiday Movie on the Lawn at Morningside Rec
Dec 6: First Friday Movie – Christmas Eve at Oldsmar Library
Dec 6: There’s Snow Place like Tarpon Springs
This is Tarpon’s biggest Christmas event and it sounds awesome. It include a snow slide, falling snow, their boat parade, kids’ crafts and Santa.
Dec 6: Morningside Ho Ho Holiday Party & Hayride
This evening event from 5:30-8:30pm includes kid-friendly activities liek crafts and inflatables, plus you can take a hayride to see Christmas lights.
Dec 7: Holidays at Hogwarts at Oldsmar Library
A Harry Potter-themed holiday party, including real life owls!
Dec 7: Dunedin Breakfast with Santa
This event includes breakfast with Santa, along with crafts and entertainment. The cost goes up when you buy tickets closer to the event so early bird book if you plan to attend.
Dec 7: Countryside’s Reindeer Lane
This event includes “reindeer games,” meeting Santa, and holiday snacks.
Dec 7: Dunedin Youth Guild Tour of Homes
The details on this event are light but you tour multiple local homes that are made festive for the holidays.
Dec 8: Belleair Party & Parade
Following their holiday parade, the town of Belleair puts on a Christmas party event that includes Santa, hot chocolate and activities like crafts.
Dec 13: R.E. Olds Park Winter Wonderland
Winter Wonderland has a giant snow slide, Santa, and bounce houses.
Dec 13: Holly-Day Jolly-Day Block Party
The evening event from 5:30-7:30pm includes a tree lighting, kids activities and food and live music.
Dec 13: Polar Express Experience at The Sound
This event looks awesome and includes Santa meet & greet with photos. Plus, there’s a holiday sing-a-long, snow, games, activities, crafts and a showing of Polar Express.
Dec 13: Seminole WinterFest & Tree Lighting
Event includes tree lighting, live entertainment, activities and crafts, bounce house and sled slide. Also has meeting with Santa and holiday market.
Dec 14: Gingerbread Building Competition
Dec 14: Dunedin Old Fashioned Christmas & Parade
This event includes Dunedin’s holiday parade, followed by holiday activities and festivities around Pioneer Park.
Dec 14: Winter Wonderland at We Rock the Spectrum
Dec 13-14: Drive Thru Nativity
Dec 20: Movie on the Lawn in Dunedin – Elf
Dec 20: Cookie Decorating at Chick-Fil-A in Oldsmar
Dec 21: North Greenwood Holiday Social
This event includes photo with Santa, cookie decoration station and hot chocolate. 4pm-6pm.
Dec 23: Chimney in the Trunk
Like a trunk-or-treat, but with holiday goodies. Plus, crafts, activities and live music.
Meet Santa Events
There are so many opportunities to meet Santa in our area in November and December that we made a separate list of these.
We also have a list for pet photos with Santa too!
Check out our list of where to meet Santa in St. Pete-Clearwater!
Winter-Themed Events
These next events are winter and snow themed instead of Christmas-themed. Each of them also feature snow activities — a very special treat for a Floridian kid!
Snow Fest at North Straub Park
Event has fun activities like a toboggan slide, bounce houses and crafts.
Christmas Parades
There are lots of Christmas Parades happening throughout Pinellas between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We wrote a whole post of all the parades and boat parades that you can find here:
Check out our full list of local Pinellas Christmas parades!
Tip before you go to a Christmas parade! Pack a stocking or bag to collect goodies that get thrown from the floats (we weren’t prepared our first year going).
Holiday Boat Parades in Pinellas
A unique Floridian Christmas experience is to watch a boat parade. Boat owners decorate their boats with Christmas lights, music and decoration. The boats sail down a parade route so people on the shore can watch.
We have a full list of local Christmas boat parades at the link below:
Check out our full list of holiday boat parades around Pinellas!
NOTE: Many of the holiday boat parades have been canceled for the 2024 season because of hurricane recovery.
Best Christmas Lights
Visit the coolest Christmas light displays in Pinellas. We made a stand-alone list of great Christmas lights that we keep updated through the season.
These are very best Christmas light displays in Clearwater-St. Pete
Christmas Tree Lightings
Many of the local cities in Pinellas host Christmas tree lighting events when they turn on their community Christmas tree. Usually these are accompanied by other festive activities like live music or a visit from Santa.
Other Holiday Activities
Here are a few more holiday activity ideas to add to your list. Some of these are not formal events but are festive activities that kids will love, like visiting a pet zoo at a Christmas tree lot.
Library Activities
The libraries throughout Pinellas County have so many holiday-themed activities going on throughout the end of the year. Check your local library for their upcoming event calendar.
Calls from Santa
Local recreation centers organize volunteers to call kids as Santa, Mrs. Claus elves during set times. Find more information for each Santa Calling here:
Gallagher’s Christmas Tree Lot
In addition to selling Christmas trees, Gallagher’s does up lots of festive photo op backgrounds
We visited their pumpkin patch as we were exploring local Halloween events and they also had a small animal petting area and bounce house. We had an awesome time the first year we visited but this year, they charged $5 per person to access a lot of the areas, including adults also having to pay $5 just to supervise their children on the bounce house after paying for the kids themselves.
Robert’s Christmas Wonderland Store
Visit Robert’s Christmas Wonderland store for a lot of holiday cheer. I remember visiting Robert’s as a kid and feeling like there was so much Christmas to see (and also being a little scared I’d break an ornament..).
3 Daughters’ Model Train Holiday Village
3 Daughters has a huge Christmas village model train set up that is very cool and was a huge hit with my kids. Definitely worth the visit for any train-loving kids.
Holiday Markets
Holiday Concerts & Performances
Read More:
Looking for more Pinellas holiday fun? Don’t miss our other holiday guides:
